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So, I bought my ticket for the banquet the day they went on sale because everyone keeps saying, "Hurry and get your ticket before they sell out!" So I did. (This will be my first Ever convention; I don't wan to miss anything.)
But what is so special?
We eat dinner together; the staff is there. Um, does someone talk at the end while we're having coffee?....
Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to it.
(Maybe you can tell me why.)
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Well, the big draw is having dinner with a staff member. The actual experience can vary, as not everyone can sit with Erik or Lisa, which is naturally a very special experience. The rest of the Paizo staff do their best to be good companions, and sitting with Gary Teter while he was still at Paizo was a pleasure. Your mileage will vary, of course.
Paizo does their best to make the previews exciting, but with the rise of liveblogging, you're only really getting the privilege of hearing it first, from the horse's mouth. Repeat experiences have diminished this for me, but I think at least your first time will still feel very special. It is a bit of a shared experience that you won't get anywhere else.
I hope you get a fun table of folks!
I've never sat with the bigwigs, but every banquet has been great for me. Getting to chat with SKR at one dinner when he was still at Paizo was a real treat! Then there is a presentation on all the new stuff. I don't think the live blogging ever really replaces hearing it live, though - usually the blog posts are a point-form thing, and the staff's enthusiasm for the new stuff is really inspiring to experience.
Slight correction, TOZ: Gary is still here :)
The big excitement is that the PaizoCon Banquet is where we've typically announced big and exciting new ventures for Paizo (like last year, when we announced Starfinder). And, of course, we seat an employee at most of the banquet tables during the duration of the banquet (the number of Paizo folk has been exceeded by table numbers at this point). You can find some details about the banquet here, also.
CEO
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Well, the big draw is having dinner with a staff member. The actual experience can vary, as not everyone can sit with Erik or Lisa, which is naturally a very special experience.
Interestingly, my table tends to be one of the last ones to fill up each year, so if you want to have dinner with me, it is very doable if the tables fill like they have in the past. Not sure if it is because people are shy or don't realize they can sit at my table, but it happens each and every year. :)
-Lisa
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Also, after the banquet is the Paizo trivia contest which is a lot of fun, and insanely challenging. I guess you don't technically need to attend the banquet to do the trivia afterwards, but it's in the same room afterwards, and you'll be there at the right time once the banquet ends.
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Thanks!
Are our tickets put in a lottery and drawn randomly to put us at table 1 or table 2, etc.? How do we learn at what table we sit?
Folks start queuing for the banquet about an hour or two before it begins. Jeff Alvarez is the Gate Keeper; he takes your ticket and says hello to you. Depending on how many peeps you have with you, he will either say, "Cosmo's table is currently empty...." or you can tell him, "We'll sit with Will Chase."
Toz is right though; it is akin to the Oklahoma Land Rush for a table.
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I've been to one PaizoCon (it was a couple years ago) and that's how it was then. You just went in and found a table that had an open spot that's who you got to sit with. I was lucky enough to sit at Jason Bulmahn's table, which was quite a treat!
I recall during the Trivia Contest, one particularly devious question was read, which brought a collective response from around the room that basically amounted to numerous variations on "holy crap, are you kidding me?!?"
As it was read, Jason became absolutely giddy as he told us "That one's mine!" It was priceless. Of course, he couldn't help the rest of us at the table, but I am proud to say I did come up with the correct answer ... sort of ... more or less ... kinda ...
Anyway, PaizoCon is a blast and the banquet is definitely one of the (many) highlights!
Well, the big draw is having dinner with a staff member. The actual experience can vary, as not everyone can sit with Erik or Lisa, which is naturally a very special experience.Interestingly, my table tends to be one of the last ones to fill up each year, so if you want to have dinner with me, it is very doable if the tables fill like they have in the past. Not sure if it is because people are shy or don't realize they can sit at my table, but it happens each and every year. :)
-Lisa
I know from experience that approaching a C-level executive is at first very imposing. I've done so a few times in various industries and it still gives me the giddies because this is a person who is smart enough to do the job, make the good decisions, and get the right people.
Plus, in my experience, the bigwig has that school teacher talent of remembering names and faces very quickly and well...and as a natural terrible name and face person that kind of scares me!